My Mockingjay - Part 1 The Hunger Games
by projectrunwayluver
Summary: The first time Peeta Mellark saw Katniss Everdeen was when his father pointed her out in the school yard. She hadn't seemed like much, a skinny girl with black hair, but when he heard her sing even the birds stopped to listen. It was then and there he decided to watch out for her until the Hunger Games happened and ruined everything. This is Peeta's side of the Games. NO LEMONS!
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Good morning everyone and happy Monday. I have had this idea for awhile now and have been working so hard on this. Now I hope all of you followers of mine give this story a chance. I love Peeta and he is one of my favorite characters from the Hunger Games. Now what I am planning is changing all three books to be from Peeta's perspective but not changing the content of what happens. There will be torture and blood and I am warning you in advance so that you can be prepared for that. Another thing you should be prepared for is that I do not write lemons ever. So today is July 11, 2016 and this is the first chapter today. Anything you recognize is Suzanne Collins and anything you don't recognize is mine.**

My hand shook in my father's as he walked me down the dirt road. Augustin and Lucian, my older brothers, ran ahead to their friends. Even though we were family my brothers and I aren't close. Not in the least. It wasn't that I didn't like them but it was more like I didn't know how to talk to them. They were both very quiet and rarely speak, like my father. My mother was, unfortunately, not like my father. She had a very bad temper. If I ever did something wrong in the bakery she would call me a "stupid creature" and hit me with whatever was closest.

I frowned down at the ground wishing Delly Cartwright had agreed to walking to school with me but she had wanted to walk with her mother. She was my neighbor and my closest friend. Her parents owned the small shoe shop down the street from my family's bakery.

I sighed and slowed as we neared the school. Father matched my pace even though his legs were twice as long as mine. "Peeta you have nothing to worry about, son." That was easy for him to say he wasn't going to stay, he would be going back to the bakery.

"What if they don't like me?" I asked not caring that my voice was shaking as I eyed a tall boy from the Seam who towered over even my father.

"They will," my father said as he lowered himself down to my height. I stared into his bright blue eyes and knew that he was telling the truth. "I promise," he paused for a moment before nodding off to my left. "See that little girl? I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner."

My eyes bugged and I turned to look for her. I spotted a girl my age wearing a red plaid dress and had her black hair in two thick braids over her shoulders. Her eyes were dark gray and she was looking around, a strange look on her face. Not fear or panic but looked fearless. Like she was going to conquer whatever life threw at her. She was skinny but walked with her shoulders thrown back and her head held high.

I blinked owlishly before turning back to my father. "A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could've had you?"

There was no one better than my father, no better man. He was so good, even when he had to deal with my mother, which was every day.

"Because when he sings…even the birds stop to listen." I frowned and was about to ask what her name was when we were called to line up by a skinny teacher who had her brown hair in a tight bun.

"May the odds be in your favor son," father said before turning and walking back the way we came.

I quickly walked over and got into line behind the mayor's daughter who was shaking. She kept biting her nails and pulling on one of her curls.

Class was very different from what I expected but not exactly bad just different. First we started with math, which I was bad at. Then we learned about the main uses of coal and how to find it, which was boring. We moved onto the alphabet, which I already knew thanks to my father. Lunch was after going over our letters and I ate a stale muffin while Delly sat across from me chattering about the letter O as she ate her food. After lunch we were told the history of Panem which was so sad, so many people died scary deaths.

We all already knew what came from the Dark Days, after all we were forced to watch the Games every year. In fact one of my earliest memories was watching a girl, no more than sixteen, rip out an eleven year old boy's throat with her teeth. It was terrifying and I had had nightmares for months. Still did every once in awhile. Delly had tried to help me by talking to me about it but that only made it worse.

After the history lesson we did art. The teacher had passed out extra pencils so we could draw something "festive" for the start of school. I didn't really know what to draw so I stared out the window instead. The teacher tapped lightly on my desk and I flushed at being caught not doing my work. She nodded toward the paper and I picked up the pencil trying to decide what to draw. I put the pencil to the paper and drew the first thing that came to my mind, a rose. It was fun drawing and relaxed my tense muscles.

Art was the second to last class of the day. After art was music assembly. The teacher had us grab our chairs and put them in a circle. I was sitting between a girl with red hair and a boy with pants that were too short.

"Now, does anyone know the Valley Song?" Miss Burbado asked looking around the room. The girl that my father had pointed out earlier slowly raised her hand her lips twitching into a smile as if she had thought of something funny.

"Perfect, why don't you come over here Miss Everdeen?" Miss Burbado said. The girl stood up and slowly walked over to the teacher. "Why don't you stand on this stool Katniss?"

Katniss, so that was her name.

She frowned before quickly scrambling onto the stool and stood carefully in the center. I sighed hoping the day would be over soon since I was hungry and tired but then she started to sing. I gasped as her sweet clear voice swept over me. It was pure and beautiful and so filled with life it almost brought tears to my eyes. The birds outside the window had stopped chirping and I knew, in this moment, my life would never be the same again. No Katniss Everdeen had a voice like a mockingjay and I hoped that one day she would become _my_ mockingjay or at the very least talk to me.

 **AN: Please Review! It helps so much more than you realize. Reviews make me happy and when I'm happy I think about the story more. The more I think about it the more I create new twists and turns for the story and I end up updating more. Which in the end makes everyone happy.**


	2. Chapter 2

****AN: Good morning everyone and happy Wednesday. I hope you all liked the first chapter of this story. It was quite fun to write and am glad I started this story. Now since it is summer I won't be able to post as much as usual. I go up to my family's cabin most weekends and there isn't any internet up there. So today is July 27, 2016 and this is the first chapter today. Once again anything you recognize is Suzanne Collins and anything you don't is mine.****

I wiped down the counter, sighing as I did so. Mother was haggling with a customer who I knew by sight but not by name. She had lost her husband in the same explosion that had killed Katniss' father three months before. The woman had cracked and bleeding hands and was bouncing a young baby on her hip. She was asking about a small roll that was a few days old. The woman wanted the price to be lower.

"But your prices are always lower if it's over five days old!" The woman said while bouncing the baby.

"Not this time, Hazelle." Mother said her lips pressed into a thin line. It was true, father always lowered the prices after a few days but if he wasn't around, and at the moment he was in bed sick with a terrible fever, mother didn't lower the prices.

The woman, Hazelle, glared at mother before turning on her heel and left the shop. I frowned and continued to clean the counter, scrubbing at a dark spot.

Mother was muttering darkly under her breath. "Stupid woman! If I lowered prices for every sob story I heard we would be just as poor as she is!" I curled my hands into fists but didn't say anything.

Mother stomped away, all but growling. I sighed and felt my shoulders slowly relax. It was hard to believe we were related. We were nothing alike. I frowned, running a hand through my hair.

"Hey! Get out of our trash bins! Move on! Do you want me to call the Peacekeepers?" I quickly made my way to the back of the store and peered around my mother's legs. "I am so sick of you kids from the Seam pawing through the trash!"

I gaped at the girl in front of me. It was Katniss and she looked sick. Her gray eyes had a sunken-in look and her pale skin clung to her bones. I hadn't seen her for a few days but she looked like she might fall over from exhaustion. She slowly placed the lid back on the trash can and backed away, her eyes wide. Mother walked away muttering but I wasn't listening to her, I was too busy watching Katniss. She leaned against the apple tree that I so loved to lay under and slumped to her knees. The emptiness in her eyes terrified me.

I quickly rushed back into the bakery to see mother pulling out two perfect loaves of raisin nut bread. They were one of the more expensive breads we sold since they were so filling and I could only think of one thing to do. I made myself trip over a stool and stumbled into my mother. She shrieked and I watched as the bread fell into the bottom of the oven. Immediately they started to catch fire and burn.

"NO!" Mother shrieked trying to pull out the bread but only managed to burn her hand. I ran around her and pulled out the bread. It stung and my instincts said to drop the bread but I didn't. I couldn't help the small smirk that curled my lips as I looked down at the burned bread in my arms. She wouldn't starve. Not if I could help it.

Something hit me sharply across the face and I found myself flat on my back, my cheek throbbing horribly. My eyes smarted and I gasped looking up. Mother was standing over me a rolling pin in her hand.

"You stupid boy!" Mother screeched looking at the burned bread in my arms. It took me a moment to get to my feet. I was dazed and weaved slightly as I stood. Mother pushed me towards the back door and I stumbled through it.

" Feed it to the pig, you stupid creature! Why not? No one decent will buy burned bread!" I started to pull off the scorched black crust and threw it into the pig's trough. Mother stood behind me huffing angrily. I waited for her to hit me again but she didn't.

The bell in the front of the store chimed and mother went back into the store cursing everyone from Katniss to my father. I waited till I heard her bartering with Rooba, the butcher, then threw one of the loaves of bread to Katniss. She gasped but I didn't look at her once as I threw the second one at her and quickly made my way back into the shop.

When I came back into the kitchen mother told me to get out of her site and I did just that. I spent the rest of the day in my room staring out my window at the apple tree. This was probably one of my favorite pastimes, watching the way the sunlight filtered through the trees. I loved the way it looked.

That night I went to bed without supper. Mother never called me and neither did my brothers. I didn't mind, I wasn't in the mood for stale bread. My stomach was growling when I fell asleep but it was even worse when I woke up the next morning and my left eye was swollen shut.

When I met up with Delly to walk to school she asked what happened but my excuse of falling down the steps was flimsy at best. She also stared at me strangely when she heard my stomach growl loudly but I quickly started to talk about our math homework from the previous day.

I could feel Katniss watching me when I got to school but I didn't look at her. The day passed slowly and my friends kept pressing for details on my black eye. They didn't believe my story about falling any more than Delly had but they were more persistent.

"Let it alone, Cassian." Lauritz said running a hand through his light hair. I turned to make my way home but froze when I saw her long black braid. Katniss was holding her little sister's hand and speaking quietly. I watched her as she pushed Prim's blonde hair behind her ear and said something. Katniss stood to her feet and turned, she stiffened when she saw that I was watching her and I quickly turned away. I peeked back to Katniss and frowned, was she picking a dandelion?

"You ready to go home?" Delly asked making me jump. I slowly turned away from Katniss frowning. "Yeah, I'm ready."

 **AN: Please Review! It helps so much more than you realize. Reviews make me happy and when I'm happy I think about the story more. The more I think about it the more I create new twists and turns for the story and I end up updating more. Which in the end makes everyone happy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Good afternoon everyone and happy Wednesday. I am very sorry for not updating sooner but life gets in the way. Same with writer's block. It comes at the worst times. I hope to update more in the future, all of my stories in fact. Now on a fun little side note I wanted to let you all know: eight weeks until Christmas! Yay! So today is October 26, 2016 and this is the first chapter today. Once again anything you recognize is Suzanne Collins's and anything you don't is mine.**

I slowly pulled the perfect golden brown bread from the oven being careful not to burn myself. After years at the oven I had finally perfected the exact art of pulling bread from the oven without burning myself.

My father was bartering with a customer. He agreed for a single squirrel for some bread rolls. I shook my head, my lips curling into a smile. He was such a rebel sometimes. It was a good thing mother didn't know that father all but gave away bread for squirrels she would eviscerate him if she had the chance. And no, I didn't mean verbally.

"Peeta?" Father called from the front of the store.

"Yeah?" I called back, carefully placing the bread on the cooling racks.

"You should head upstairs to get ready. We won't be getting any more business today anyway." I stiffened, dropping one of the pans of bread. The edge of the pan caught my arm and I quickly wrenched it away but it was too late. I had burned myself and had a shiny pink scar to add to my collection.

It took me longer than I expected to get ready. I took a periphery bath every couple of days but on the day of the Reaping I needed to make sure I was clean. On the off chance I was reaped I needed to make sure I was presentable if I was going to go to the Capitol. The last thing I wanted was to make my mother even more ashamed of me than she was.

I pulled on my nicest clothing before making my way slowly down the steps. With each step my heart pounded painfully. Lucian was standing in the kitchen, his lips pressed together in a grim line. Augustin stood next to him, pulling at the collar of his button down shirt. Reaping clothes. My stomach churned nervously and I was afraid I would be sick.

"Is everyone ready?" Mother asked, walking into the room, her greying hair pulled up into a tight bun. She looked all three of us over, her lips pursed, before nodding. "Good, let's go."

I was about to ask where father was when he appeared around the corner, all the light and happiness gone from his eyes. He hated the Games as much, if not more, than I did.

We made our way down the streets and I made sure to keep my eyes on my shoes. I did not want to be sick and vomit on national television. Most sane people would be terrified for their own lives but that was only partially true with myself. Yes, I loathed the idea of getting Reaped, but there was something that scared me even more. The idea of Katniss Everdeen, the girl I all but loved, the girl who sang like a mockingjay, would be Reaped and forced to fight in the Games. I had a feeling I knew exactly what I would do if she was Reaped. And I had a feeling if I did that... she might just kill me herself.

I left my parents and brothers and made my way over to an area that was roped off for the sixteen year olds. I stood next to Cassian and Lauritz. They were talking about the mayor's daughter and how pretty she was. It figured they were talking about girls. They had practically no fear of the reaping. Our names were only in there five times. Katniss on the other hand had her name in there twenty times so that she could have food for herself and her family. Barely enough grain and oil for one person.

"She is absolutely gorgeous!" Cassian said, whispering quickly.

"Oh sure, only if you like an obvious beauty." Lauritz said, shrugging.

"Oh yeah, you must think someone looks better. Who's the girl?" Cassian asked raising an eyebrow. Lauritz's eyes widened and a faint red color crossed his face. He sneaked a look at me before roughly clearing his throat and pulling at his collar.

The mayor quickly crossed the stage and started to read the story of Panem. Lauritz looked grateful while Cassian threw different looks at Lauritz. It was clear what he meant, this conversation isn't over.

The moment the mayor stopped talking and Haymitch, a previous victor, gave Effie Trinket a drunken hug. Cassian hissed, "Who do you like?!"

Lauritz opened his mouth to respond when Effie Trinket, the terrifying woman from the Capitol who read out the names each year, quickly crossed the stage on her pointy shoes. Her hair was a brilliant pink color and her makeup was pure white. It was a wonder the little kids didn't scream when they saw her.

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" Her pink hair must be a wig because her curls have shifted slightly off-center.

"Ladies first!" Effie Trinket trills and crosses to the glass ball with the girls names. She reaches in, digs her hand deep into the ball, and pulls out a slip of paper. The crowd draws in a collective breath. I can feel Lauritz shaking next to me and I'm terribly nauseous. Please, don't let it be Katniss. Please!

Effie Trinket crossed back to the podium, smoothed the slip of paper, and read out the name in a clear voice. "Primrose Everdeen!"

 **AN: Please Review! It helps so much more than you realize. Reviews help me create a story that everyone loves. And the only way to make sure I know you all like it is with reviews telling me what you think, what you love and hate about it. Also any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated and I would give you credit if I used your idea in the Author's Note. Seriously guys every little bit helps.**


End file.
